Daily Text and Bible Reading: Monday, February 24 [Press play below]

3.1 “Then we turned and went up by the Way of Bashan. And Og, the king of Bashan, came out with all his people to meet us in battle at Edrei.
3.2 So Jehovah said to me, ‘Do not be afraid of him, for I will give him and all his people and his land into your hand, and you will do to him just as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.’
3.3 So Jehovah our God also gave King Og of Bashan and all his people into our hand, and we kept striking him down until none of his people survived.
3.4 We then captured all his cities. There was no town that we did not take from them—60 cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
3.5 All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, along with a great number of rural towns.
3.6 However, we devoted them to destruction, just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon, in devoting every city to destruction, including men, women, and children.
3.7 And we took all the livestock and the spoil of the cities for ourselves.
3.8 “At that time we seized the land of the two Amorite kings who were in the region of the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon
3.9 (the mountain that the Sidonians used to call Sirion and the Amorites used to call Senir),
3.10 all the cities of the tableland, all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom that belonged to Og in Bashan.
3.11 For King Og of Bashan was the last remaining one of the Rephaim. His bier was made of iron, and it is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the standard cubit.
3.12 At that time we took possession of this land: from Aroer, which is by the Arnon Valley, and half of the mountainous region of Gilead, and I have given its cities to the Reubenites and the Gadites.
3.13 And the rest of Gilead and all Bashan of the kingdom of Og I have given to the half tribe of Manasseh. All the region of Argob, which belongs to Bashan, was known as the land of the Rephaim.
3.14 “Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob as far as the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites and named those villages of Bashan after himself, Havvoth-jair, to this day.
3.15 And I have given Gilead to Machir.
3.16 And to the Reubenites and the Gadites, I have given from Gilead to the Arnon Valley, with the middle of the valley as a boundary, and as far as Jabbok, the valley that is the boundary of the Ammonites,
3.17 and the Arabah and the Jordan and the border, from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, at the base of the slopes of Pisgah toward the east.
3.18 “I then gave you this command: ‘Jehovah your God has given you this land to take possession of it. All your valiant men will take up arms and cross over before your brothers, the Israelites.
3.19 Only your wives, your children, and your livestock (I well know that you have a great deal of livestock) will continue dwelling in the cities that I have given you,
3.20 until Jehovah gives your brothers rest, as he does for you, and they also have taken possession of the land that Jehovah your God will give them across the Jordan. Then you will come back, each one to his possession that I have given you.’
3.21 “At that time I gave this command to Joshua: ‘You have seen with your own eyes what Jehovah your God has done to these two kings. Jehovah will do the same thing to all the kingdoms into which you will cross over.
3.22 You must not be afraid of them, for Jehovah your God is the one fighting for you.’
3.23 “At that time I pleaded with Jehovah, saying,
3.24 ‘O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty arm, for what god in the heavens or on the earth performs such mighty deeds as you?
3.25 Please let me pass over and see the good land that is across the Jordan, this good mountainous region and Lebanon.’
3.26 But Jehovah was still furious with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. Rather, Jehovah said to me, ‘Enough from you! Never speak to me again about this matter.
3.27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and look to the west and north and south and east and view the land with your eyes, for you will not cross over this Jordan.
3.28 Commission Joshua and encourage him and strengthen him, because he is the one who will cross over before this people and he is the one who will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.’
3.29 All this happened while we were dwelling in the valley in front of Beth-peor.
4.1 “Now, O Israel, listen to the regulations and the judicial decisions that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that Jehovah, the God of your forefathers, is giving you.
4.2 You must not add to the word that I am commanding you, neither must you take away from it, so as to keep the commandments of Jehovah your God that I am commanding you.
4.3 “Your own eyes have seen what Jehovah did in the case of the Baal of Peor; Jehovah your God annihilated from your midst every man who walked after the Baal of Peor.
4.4 But you who are holding fast to Jehovah your God are all alive today.
4.5 See, I have taught you regulations and judicial decisions, just as Jehovah my God has commanded me, so that you may observe them in the land you will take possession of.
4.6 You must carefully follow them, because this will show wisdom and understanding on your part before the peoples who will hear about all these regulations, and they will say, ‘This great nation is undoubtedly a wise and understanding people.’
4.7 For what great nation has gods as near to it as Jehovah our God is to us whenever we call on him?
4.8 And what great nation has righteous regulations and judicial decisions like this entire Law that I am putting before you today?
4.9 “Just be careful and watch yourself closely, so that you may not forget the things that your eyes have seen and so that they may not depart from your heart all the days of your life. You must also make them known to your sons and to your grandsons.
4.10 On the day that you stood before Jehovah your God in Horeb, Jehovah said to me, ‘Congregate the people together to me so that I may let them hear my words, in order that they may learn to fear me all the days that they are alive on the ground and that they may teach their sons.’
4.11 “So you came near and stood at the base of the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire up to the very heavens; there was darkness, cloud, and thick gloom.
4.12 And Jehovah began to speak to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form—there was only a voice.
4.13 And he declared his covenant to you, which he commanded you to observe—the Ten Commandments. Afterward, he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
4.14 At that time Jehovah commanded me to teach you regulations and judicial decisions, which you are to observe in the land you will enter to take possession of.
4.15 “Therefore, watch yourselves closely—since you did not see any form on the day Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire—
4.16 that you may not act corruptly by making for yourselves any carved image having the form of any symbol, the representation of male or female,
4.17 the representation of any animal on the earth or the representation of any bird that flies in the sky,
4.18 the representation of anything creeping on the ground or the representation of any fish in the waters under the earth.
4.19 And when you raise your eyes to the heavens and see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the army of the heavens—do not get seduced and bow down to them and serve them. Jehovah your God has given them to all the peoples under the whole heavens.
4.20 But you are the ones Jehovah took and brought out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to become the people of his personal possession, as you are today.
4.21 “Jehovah became angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan or go into the good land that Jehovah your God is giving you as an inheritance.
4.22 For I am to die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan, but you will cross over and take possession of this good land.
4.23 Be careful that you do not forget the covenant of Jehovah your God that he made with you, and do not make for yourselves a carved image, the form of anything forbidden to you by Jehovah your God.
4.24 For Jehovah your God is a consuming fire, a God who requires exclusive devotion.
4.25 “If you become father to sons and grandsons and you have lived a long time in the land and you act ruinously and make a carved image of any kind and you do what is evil in the eyes of Jehovah your God so as to offend him,
4.26 I do take the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of. You will not last long on it, but you will be utterly annihilated.
4.27 Jehovah will scatter you among the peoples, and just a few of you will survive among the nations to which Jehovah will have driven you.
4.28 There you will have to serve gods of wood and stone made by human hands, gods that cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
4.29 “If you search for Jehovah your God from there, you will certainly find him, if you inquire for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
4.30 When you are in great distress and all these things have happened to you in later times, then you will return to Jehovah your God and listen to his voice.
4.31 For Jehovah your God is a merciful God. He will not desert you or bring you to ruin or forget the covenant that he swore to your forefathers.
4.32 “Ask, now, about the former days before your time, from the day when God created man on the earth; search from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens. Has anything so great ever happened or has anything like it ever been heard of?
4.33 Have any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire the way you have heard it and kept on living?
4.34 Or has God ever attempted to take for himself a nation out of the midst of another nation along with judgments, with signs, with miracles, with war, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with terrifying deeds, as Jehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
4.35 You yourselves have been shown these things so you will know that Jehovah is the true God; there is no other besides him.
4.36 He made you hear his voice from the heavens to correct you, and on the earth he made you see his great fire, and his words you heard from out of the fire.
4.37 “Because he loved your forefathers and has chosen their offspring after them, you were brought out of Egypt in his presence by his great power.
4.38 From before you he drove away nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as it is today.
4.39 Know, therefore, on this day, and take it to heart that Jehovah is the true God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. There is no other.
4.40 You must keep his regulations and his commandments that I am commanding you today, in order that it may go well with you and your sons after you, so that you may long remain in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.”
4.41 At that time Moses set apart three cities on the eastern side of the Jordan.
4.42 If any manslayer unintentionally kills his fellow man and he did not previously hate him, he must flee to one of these cities and live.
4.43 The cities are Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
4.44 Now this is the Law that Moses set before the people of Israel.
4.45 These are the reminders, the regulations, and the judicial decisions that Moses gave to the Israelites after they came out of Egypt,
4.46 in the region of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who was dwelling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after coming out of Egypt.
4.47 And they took possession of his land and of the land of King Og of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were in the region east of the Jordan,
4.48 from Aroer, which is on the rim of the Arnon Valley, up to Mount Sion, that is, Hermon,
4.49 and all the Arabah in the region east of the Jordan, and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, at the base of the slopes of Pisgah.